November/December "Hatch-a-Long"

[Ihilani Coffee]

how much do you plan to sell marans pullets for? just curious, I will also be selling my extras but closer to the 12-ish week range. I don't think I will have excess marans pullets (I think there's just 2), but I WILL have lots of extra Welsummers.
My eggs are going in today; 15 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and 9 Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas (see how I spelled it right and everything!!

)
The English Lavender Orpingtons seller fell through. Ugh. She was in Oregon and everything. =\ when people flake, and it's through the internet, I somehow lose trust to go back to them again.

2 of the BLRWs had detached air cells upon arrival. I am thinking that I will go ahead and treat them ALL the same (detached); no turning for the first 48hrs of set, and hand turning after that. Candling inside the incubator until day 15 as to not disturb the re-attaching membrane. I figure they were all in the same shipment, it's possible they have damage I can't identify. I didn't want to roll them all around when I candled, in case they were detached. I think I am just going to treat them all as detached to be safe... What do you all think?

I feel the same way! And I still eat 2 eggs for breakfast everyday lol. My husband is either sick of or grossed out by eggs at this point. I just think they are amazing.

I think I set 47 shipped eggs last time, and ended up with 21.. 15 of those didn't make it to lockdown.. as they are getting bigger, 21 is a LOT of chicks! I try to hold them each day, but I can't really get to each one! I want them to be hand raised and human comfortable no matter who they end up with. Still, I can't wait for them to get feathers and move outside hehe. I have a 2nd brooder for the next set of chicks, but I also need to construct a brooder expansion for these 2 week olds...

Pricing on the pullets will depend on a lot of factors: age, type, quality, feathering, color, etc. I'm not avoiding the question just don't have a good answer right now.

People will do what they will do. I thought I had made a deal for stacking cages for selling at swaps but was just informed they sold them out from under me.

I was waiting for them to tell me how they wanted to get paid and to me the communication was clear. C'est la vie.

I am asking about putting them in paper cartons or leaving in plastic egg trays at lockdown and hatching them upright in the cartons/trays.

 

[faerieannette]

Hello everyone!

day 21 is tomorrow!! My incubator is a homemade Styrofoam cooler nested inside a Rubbermaid bin for extra insulation. I have a light bulb to heat it hooked up to a water heater thermostat. Adjusting the temperature is impossible without disturbing the eggs. I have had a steady temp until adding the extra moisture. How quick does the membrane dry out?! can it rehydrate with extra moisture? my babies!

 

[faerieannette]

I don't know what kind of incubator you have I dry hatch and they come out looking like this

so don't worry.

woah! so you even keep it dry durring lockdown?

 

[Farmer Viola]

Hello everyone!

day 21 is tomorrow!! My incubator is a homemade Styrofoam cooler nested inside a Rubbermaid bin for extra insulation. I have a light bulb to heat it hooked up to a water heater thermostat. Adjusting the temperature is impossible without disturbing the eggs. I have had a steady temp until adding the extra moisture. How quick does the membrane dry out?! can it rehydrate with extra moisture? my babies!

okay don't panic!! deep breathing.. they are most likely fine! I don't think the temp or humidity was too low for to long. just keep conditions the same and wait read a book? clean something?

once they pip the egg, they can take up to 24hours to begin zipping around the egg. if more than 24hours goes by without zipping, then you might have reason to worry. it is just way too early to tell. when they pip and zip, you should see a white membrane. if the membrane looks brown or yellow or crusted and crinkled, that is cause for concern.

 

[gimmie birdies]

well I may throw in a 1/2 wrung out paper towel but only after the pip. yup-

 

[Farmer Viola]

Who hatches shipped eggs upright in egg cartons? Please give your experience with this and also if you have hatched homegrown eggs this way.

Oh. Haha couldn't make out what you meant in your earlier post, looks like I skipped a whole page of this thread!

Last hatch, I put my shipped eggs upright in cartons for lockdown; through day 18 I used an automatic egg turner. I have never hatched homegrown eggs, only shipped.

This hatch, I have 11 of 24 with detached air cells, so I am not using the automatic turner. I am keeping all the eggs upright in cartons with the bottoms cut out for ventilation. I sterilized the cartons with lysol spray and let them dry out days prior to this. I am going to mark X and O on either side of the egg and lean them side to side in the carton 3x per day.

My experience with carton hatching (lockdown only) last time was that it looked difficult to climb out of the upright egg. I assisted other chicks, and those were placed back in the bator on their side, where I watched how they were able to wriggle out pushing both ends of the egg away. When upright, they have to pop the top, and then somehow get a leg up out of the shell to climb out. It looked hard, and required the chicks to rest a lot. But they did it!

 

[Heidisgran]

Quote: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Rarebreedchickenauction/

here is the link to the rare breeds selling group on facebook....you can get an idea on there

 

[Heidisgran]

Hello everyone!

day 21 is tomorrow!! My incubator is a homemade Styrofoam cooler nested inside a Rubbermaid bin for extra insulation. I have a light bulb to heat it hooked up to a water heater thermostat. Adjusting the temperature is impossible without disturbing the eggs. I have had a steady temp until adding the extra moisture. How quick does the membrane dry out?! can it rehydrate with extra moisture? my babies!

just keep your humidity up at this point...from experience I can tell you there is a possibility that the membrane dried a little during the drop and when you pumped it back up it gets gooey...keep your eye on the chicks as they pip....if after 36 hrs they are trying to zip and not able to circle the shell then you may need to help....you'll know because it's start breaking the shell just close to where it pips bigger but not turning....
DO NOT RUSH
they pip, most of the time, a full 24 hrs before they zip...DO NOT RUSH

pipping doesn't mean ready to hatch...it mean they are ready to breath

sit on you hands!

 

[gimmie birdies]

Mine is homemade-

I only open a small window at the top when i turn my eggs and fish out chicks to move to the brooder. I don't worry about the moisture myself. I dry hatch until the outer pip then put in a 1/2 paper towel wrung out. But yes I agree as they hatch sit on those hands , or just wring them.

 

[tmp8149]

I purchased a dozen eggs on the internet via ebay... we hade 6 chicks hatch on Thanksgiving and 3 that did not hatch (there was a fully formed chick in the eggs, but did not hatch) This was out first time we hatched cicks. It was a lot of fun to watch the development of the egg and to watch all 6 eggs hatch!




We have Hercules, Marbles, Red Neck, Slow Poke, Zippy and Chewy